Prep: Back to Schooling Again

I just can't help it.

The thrill of preparing for school is woven deep within my DNA. It just is. My heart palpitates when Wal-Mart puts three-ring binders on sale. Yesterday the Office Max guy found me fingering the felt tip pens. Rulers...Bic pens...erasers...spiral notebooks...Oh, gosh! I'm all a tizzie.

Where to start? Where to begin? How can I get organized, I ask you?

Deep breaths, Debbie. Deep breaths.

You'll be ever-so-glad to know that I once made a guide that covers back-to-school organization techniques and more! And, if you're you're as back-to-school excitable as I am, make yourself a nice cup of camomile tea and try to relax until Simple Saturday. Operant word? Try.

Simple Saturday: Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade

Okay, my dear Simple Saturday friends. The guide I'm sharing today has been created for the most delightfully darling early chapter book I have ever read...and compadres, I've read a bushel of them. For real.

Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade, written by my partner in crime, Stephanie Greene, and illustrated by cutie-patootie Stephanie Roth Sisson, is the first book in series starring a charmingly complex first grader named Posey, whose persona is altered when she dons her pink tutu. The moment that circle of pink netting wraps around her tiny waist Posey is transformed into --- drum roll, please --- super-confident-ever-invincible Princess Posey!Well, in her six-year-old mind anyway.

The guide I made to compliment this treasure contains not only discussion questions, a compare and contrast activity, a word bank game, and a magic letter 'e' activity, there is a folder game that I'd like for you to take a look at. Access the guide HERE  to get a gander. 

To make the game you'll need a letter-sized manila file folder, glue, a paper clip, a pencil, some game movers, and download the game board. The directions to create the game are all spelled out in the guide. It's fun. Trust me.

I have to say though, that playing the game with the book by your side would be even more meaningful. And, if you have a new first grader who is in any way anxious about going back to school, Posey will help qualm any fears.

She's sweet that way.

Ghoulish Game on!

 I know...it's still summertime and the thought of spending extended periods of time with teachers is almost nauseating. Those ghoulish, monstrous, demonic beings that they are...Yikes!

That being said, what if your teachers were really ghouls? You know - blood thirsty, brainsucking beasts. Sweet love of Neptune...what would you do?

Well, read Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys: The Rat Brain Fiasco and you'll be all but kissing the feet of your human teachers come this fall - I'm telling you! I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interpret this amazing story in a board game format, and, if I do say so myself, I pulled it off quite handsomely!

Now, when I originally created a game guide for my dear friend Julie Berry, it looked like THIS. But, once the Grosset & Dunlap's creative brains took a look at it, the game board was transformed to THIS. Neat, huh?

And...in the time that I created the game and sat back on my laurels for a while, Julie has published three more books in the series. Yeowza! How cool it that?

So, for today, my simplistic Simple Saturday friend, with your game pieces and die in hand, download that gameboard and have some last-chance, almost-over, summertime fun.

Prep: Ghoulish Game On!

Tomorrow I'm going to feature another guide that I've done to compliment a book that has now become a smash series!

All you need to bring with you in order to be-bop around the game board is one die/dice and game pieces/movers, which can be beans or buttons or tiny stones. This is Simple Saturday, remember? Keep it c-h-e-a-p!

I'll provide a link to the .pdf gameboard that can be printed out on cardstock with no trouble at all.

And, speaking of trouble...the book we'll be talking about is packed with trouble - interesting, mischievous, and deliciously dangerous trouble. Come by tomorrow and I'll show you then.

Simple Saturday: Geography - A Travel Game

So sorry to keep you waiting. Been busy loading up the car, getting geared up for a rowdy road trip. Now that the rig is all set, let's get playing Simple Saturday Geography - A Travel Game.

Here's how we play:

Among the available players in the car, decide on predictiable rotation pattern. Perhaps you might let the youngest player goes first. The person to the wee one's right goes next and around the horn from there.

The first player says a geographical location - any city, state, or country will do. Maybe our tiny tot says, "Austin." All right. Good start.

Austin ends in the letter 'N'. The next player has to think of a geographic location beginning with that letter. Maybe..how about..."Nashville"? That ends in the letter 'E', so let's think of somewhere in the world that begins with that letter.

Hmmm... What do you think?

Eureka?

Ethiopia?

Escondido?

Egypt?

Yeah! Let's go with Egypt!

So, think about the word 'Egypt'. What's the last letter in the word? What letter will the next player have to use for their geographical location? Right. You got it, Mr. Smart Guy... the letter 'T'.

 And that's how it goes. Each person comes up with a new city, state, or country based on the last letter of the previous player's chosen location. No repeating places, now. Each spot has to be original. When someone can't come up with a place, game over! Start again.

 And again. And again...all the way home.